"I think this uproar has been somewhat of a storm in a teacup" - Lars van der Haar cools talk of a revolt against UCI following World Cup controversy

The cyclocross world was sent into a frenzy recently after inflammatory comments by UCI President, David Lappartient. According to Dutch National Champion Lars van der Haar however, much has been made of nothing.

"I think this uproar has been somewhat of a storm in a teacup," says van der Haar in conversation with GCN. "The UCI panicked but everybody has been skipping World Cups for five years since they added more rounds. Before that, you didn’t think about skipping but now everybody will skip one or two here or there."

"I do not think David Lappartient’s plans are the way to go, but let’s sit together and make the World Cup great again – it is as simple as that," van der Haar says of the UCI President's outburst. "I think with eight or nine World Cups between October and the Worlds is the best way to go."

Concerns over the upcoming World Cup round in Dublin have seen Lars van der Haar's Baloise Trek Lions' team send a very limited team to Ireland. "We planned it all out but, in the end, I was just not happy with how I would have to do it, because I would need to send my parents with two bikes already to Dublin, then I would have to do Kortrijk with two bikes," he explains. "But in the end, you’re doing both races halfway and if it is going to be muddy – which is probably is going to be – then you may not have enough with two bikes. It is possible, but it would have been such a big stress that I decided with the team to skip Dublin."